Toronto head coach Paul Rowley couldn’t contain his delight after his Wolfpack side stunned Leigh Centurions.
On his first return to his former club, Rowley’s side silenced Leigh’s supporters with a stunning second-half turnaround.
“You’re just a team full of rejects,” was chanted at the Wolfpack early on after they fell 12-0 behind, but second-half tries from former Leigh players Cory Paterson, Liam Kay (2) and Ryan Brierley secured a memorable win.
Rowley was understandably pleased with his side and he said: “I’m not sure if I was confident or not coming here. I knew we were coming to a side well prepared that had a really good pre-season and physically ahead of us really.
“For us to come here and perform like that really is credit to the staff, Simon Finigan, Kurt Haggerty, all the medical staff, but most of all the players who through all the adversity, all the challenges they’ve faced have really come together, stood up and put in a performance really. I’m glad it was a game played in good spirit and I thought both sides entertained the crowd today.
“It’s a fantastic start of the season but it just the start, it’s a long way to go, but I’d lying if we weren’t overjoyed with a fantastic performance.”
Toronto’s second-half display was of particular pleasure for Rowley.
“We were on 100% for pretty much most of the second-half so it wasn’t far off perfect,” he said.
“We felt that they’d challenge us, they put their strongest pack out to start the game and we knew they’d come through the middle and really challenge us there because we were a bit short on fitness for where we should have been at, but we turned that on its head through good completions and smart play, directed well by Ryan Brierley and the rest of the pivots on the field. I thought they were fantastic.”
Full report plus reaction from Brierley is in Monday’s League Express. Buy in stores or online at totalrl.com/le.
